Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Looking for an Old Computer...???

i'm looking for an older computer, a Mac maybe,
something that predates OSX, which i HATE...!!!
OSX is a total sell-out to the appearances of MS...!!!
You see this same trend with HP Calculators, they are looking more and more like TI Calculators...!!!
But anyways...
i would also like it to be a portable; laptop, or such, and have a CD burner built in...???
Also; since i'm so poor, i would like it to be around $200...!
This doesn't strike me as completely unreasonable, as the resale value of computers is amazingly low...
Perhaps this is why you never see old computers in Hock Shops...???
So if you've upgraded in the last few years, and have the old one still sitting in a closet, or a box in the basement, and would like to support the Consortium--

Then Thanx for considering us...!!!

Next...

Well; i don't want to jinx it by saying too much, but it looks like i'll soon be moving out of my sister's house & into my own apartment--
It'll be the best place that i've ever lived in on my own...??? ( !!! )
more later...

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Anomalous Oddity of This Blog...

One of the Oddest things about this Blog, is that, from time to time, i will have an absolutely & unconditional certitude that i have entered onto this Blog a Page containing various items...
And then; At some later time-- i absolutely can not find it...!!!
Or-- i'll do an Internal Search of The Blog, for a particular term that i feel must exist on numerous pages, and it insists that there are "No References" for that term...???
Blogger has; i believe, from time to time, lost or forgotten pages, that later turn up again, or occasionally, i will be unable to find a page when looking for it, from one direction, only to have it turn up, when examining a set of pages that were retrieved in a slightly different manner...!!!
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How very annoying.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Forced to Use MicroS-

So i finally got around to working on my Owie Series: Broken Hip today,
Adding a new picture, and reorganizing all the other ones,
and intending to add some more text biddles,
Updating this crazy nonsense and so on...
and i get about half done with the tedious job of moving the pictures around in html code...!
Because this stupid Blog format won't let me just lift pictures up and move them around...
Noooo...
That would be too easy wouldn't it...
And This Stupid MS Internet Explorer decides, for no reason at all, to just; Up and quit...!!!
FAWK...!!!
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Maybe i'll get up the energy to try to work on it again tomorrow...???
Ugh.

Monday, July 17, 2006

My Latest Project...

Can You Win @ Roulette...???
Can you...???
After extensive simulations with a new scheme,
that turned out to be a perversion of several older, well digested schemes,
i'm not sure if this new approach really works or not...???
It seems to,
but there is just a crack of doubt leaking at the edges...???

Saturday, July 08, 2006

For Deana: Extra Fancy & Fun Coffee Travel Mugs

These are awfully cute...
Brugo Mugs

Surprise Surprise ( for me!!! ) Many of these actually claim to have a Stainless Steel Vacuum Insulated Technology for Superior Insulation...??? For only 25$
Thermos Nissan

Is this a Coffee Mug...???
Zojirushi

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Most Recent Row with Deana Crabtree

So last night; i was doing the dishes and discovered that the bottom of one of their Stainless Steel Traveling Coffee Mugs had popped off rather easily-- taking the hint, i then pulled off the top portion and washed the inside inner liner and let all the parts dry off in the dish rack.
This morning; i discovered that Deana had thrown all the parts away, thinking that it was 'Broken' ...! ...that i had 'taken out the inside' ...
Dang! i forgot her actual expression, but it was pure jibberish...!!!
So i asked her what she meant as she ran down stairs.
- no response.
---
This is very archetypal of her behaviour, and i got to thinking that it is exactly like my mother's behaviour...!!! That is; She will either respond with a completely inattentive & archived apposite remark -or- She will become completely hysterical.
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Not that she apparently behaves this way around everyone...
As i mentioned before; everyone else loves her, in their eyes;
She is the most perfect little canary in the whole dang kitchen...
So what is it about me that brings this out in these two...???
i think it may be related to the aphorism:
"If you make someone think that they are thinking, then they will love you,
But if you make them actually think, then they will hate you."
i am absolutely terrible at making people think that they are thinking...!!!
Instead; i frequently ask questions or make comments which necessarily require the listener to engage both hemispheres of their grey quishy lumps.
Some people can't handle this.
So as long as she's participating in pointless bantering with Sandi or her boyfriend, then she is able to put on a happy face and appear to all the world that she is a little princess from faerieland.
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When she came back upstairs, i asked her again what it was that was broken about the coffee mug...
( Looks very much like the first mug shown / Scroll down a little )
...and after a little more incoherient ranting, i came to believe, that she believed, that the inner lining of this mug, contained an Insulating 'Vacuum'...???
You may recall that such a design is called a:
Dewar flask n.
An insulated container used especially to store liquefied gases, having a double wall with a vacuum between the walls and silvered surfaces facing the vacuum.

It is typically used to store fluids such as Liquid Nitrogen, Oxygen or Hydrogen.
Not usually used for Hot Coffee or Ice Tea.
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Of course no amount of reasoning would dissuade her from this belief...
...Because she's an idiot.
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The curious thing about this is that while i was a street person, i would get the most glowing reports about her, That she was going to an exclusive Military Academe, or learning to Fly Airplanes or Spending the summer Fishing in Alaska, or raising Pigs.
But now that i've had some first hand experience with her...
i don't even believe that she's average.
( The dead giveaway for this may be seen in her extensive and tepid collection of videos and dvd's, The Complete Absence of Books in her Room; ( except for piles of Romance Novels ), The Games that she has for her X-Box, or The lack of interesting programs or games on her computer... Neither does she seem to create -Anything- Poetry, Journals, Documenting Ideas... again: except for numerous photographs of Flowers, that she's taken, that are routinely photographed, dead on, without the slightest suggestion of insightful perceptions...??? )
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Clearly-- She seems to be an overachiver ( See: Rushmore, or Broadcast News for other notable overachievers ) but like all good overachievers, she's just a bit dumb.
And in the worst way--
That is:
She doesn't know it.
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One of the great hallmarks of a genius- like me -is that i know i'm dumb and will freely admit ignorance when confronted with things that i don't understand, or when someone says something confusing or unintelligible... Unless of course; i have very good reasons for believing that the source of these unintelligible remarks is an imbecile.
---
oh well.
It's all very sad.
--------------------
Supplement:
July 7th '06
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i was talking to my sister Sandi this morning, ( Deana's Mother ) and i asked her what Deana's Academic Record consisted of throughout her years in The Public School system, and she said that Deana was A Straight A Student.
---
My opinion has been; Not just recently, but for years and years-- Perhaps having formed as early as the 7th or 8th Grade, was that The Straight A Students are Not the Smartest Ones.
The B- Students, and possibly lower, Often have the greatest intellectual potential, and are often much better 'Read' than The SAS's.
It's not simply that TSAS's take the easiest; No risk classes, or that they possess a higher than normal 'IQ' ; Specifically tailored to Manipulate or 'Suck up' to Authority Figures and other mildly willed Kingfishes...
...It is more than that--
They have experienced from their earliest days, A Pavlovian Behavioural Feedback Loop that has 'Taught' them to seek The Safest and Blandest Aquiescent Validation that is available.
And within The Public School System, This translates into Straight A's.
Everyone else that is struggling to form An Autonomous Personality and Self Actualize, is Turbulently & Brutally pushed away from those Inane, Capricious & Vain markings on their Report Cards.
---
It basically comes down to "How do they get those Straight A's?"
A: By accepting The Indoctrination Methods of The Public School System.
If you resist, and actually try to learn something...
You Will be Punished.
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Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Boycott IMAX...!!!

This Rant may contain Spoilers for Superman Returns... ( ??? )
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i got my sister to take me over to the local IMAX Theater Sunday to see; Superman Returns in 3D...!!!
Only to discover the rinky dink IMAX Theater here in Spokane Washington isn't showing it in 3D...!!!
Additionally; The posters on view throughout the IMAX complex there advertise the film as being: 'In IMAX'...???
What does this mean; 'In IMAX'...???
It was Not filmed in IMAX, since the film; On screen only took up about half the full screen,
One quarter of which was empty along the top and bottom.
It was simply a conventional theater quality version,
Shown on an IMAX screen. Should this qualify it for inclusion in the IMAX genre of film...???
You could show any home slide show on an IMAX screen, and then argue persuasively that it is 'In IMAX'...!!!
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i just noticed while reading the blurb on the website sited above that--
Even in the 3D version, ONLY SELECTED BITS have been converted to 3D...!!!
What a Freakin' Rip Off...!!!
---
Boycott IMAX!
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What else.
i'm still hobbling along on my walker, since i broke my hip back in May, and while i was there, None of the IMAX attendants asked me if i needed any assistance, or showed me any consideration in finding a suitable seat. In fact, there are NO facilities there to accommodate any Disabled Persons toward the end of finding a suitable viewing seat.
The only seats that are availbable to persons in wheelchairs, are in the very freakin' front row...!!!
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And then; The carpeting had a very detailed and complex pattern to it, that made it very difficult to determine where the edges of the stairs were...
Since these edges were not marked or lit in any reasonable manner...!
It was a genuinely very dangerous arrangement of stairs and darkness...!!!
Even for ably mobile persons...!
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The film 'Superman Returns' is a 2 1/2 Hour film, substantially longer than most IMAX films- i suspect- and as such, Was made additionally unbearable to me- in particular- because the seats are bare hardwood...!!! Even the sleaziest conventional theaters have padded seats...!
---
The film itself.
Was very Lame.
If you recall the 1978 version, the byline was "You'll believe a man can fly" which was especially cruel, because; given-- even-- the technology that was available at that time, it was just wrong.
They filmed it wrong.
They mismatched the backgrounds to the wired superman in the foregrounds...
AND THEY KNEW IT...
and they shipped it anyway...
That is Lame.
Very Lame.
This New Version, at least, did not suffer from that same 'type' of Lameness...
It was Technically - OK - But just a bad film.

It had this one bit, about 20 minutes into the film which highlighted the 'SuperEffects' and thereafter, it was amazingly tepid.
---
And the storyline was essentially nonexistant.
Superman, leaves-- for no good reason, and then returns...
In a Kryptonian Spaceship.
The curious thing about this is that a pivotal plot device later on, perpetrated by Lex Luther, requires us to have some comprehension-- Or Sympathy-- for this 'Idea' of a Technology based on Crystalography...???
Wouldn't it have been nice, if at the beginning of the film, we were able to witness how this technology actually worked, on board the freakin' Kryptonian Space Ship...
But NO!
We are only allowed to see the damn thing Crash...!!!
What does that really say about the superior benefits of Kryptonian handiwork...???
---
Then: Later on-- to add to this point --Lex Luthor is going to essentially take over the world by using this Kryptonian technology that he stole from Superman's, Amazingly Security Free, Fortress of Solitude...
So anyways...
Lex impliments this 'Landmass Bomb' and then the world sits on it's hands.
OK -- Very little time as gone by during this period, but even so,
Lex-- while claiming to have the technological resourses to combat all the worlds armies and such...
Is completely Unprepared at this time...!!!
He has not created a single Kryptonian weapon to defend himself with...!!!
Wouldn't it be nice if we got to see him impliment some of this Crystal Manufacturing Process in a more functional and INTERESTING Manner...!!!
GeeOdd...!!!
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i was reading in Newsweek, the director; Bryan Singer was saying that he's really evolved as a director, because this film was made to attract 'gals' with it's 'Romantic' Elements...!!!
What a freakin' HOOT...!!!
The Romantic Elements consist of Lois Lane being a Cold Fish towards both her 'New Boy Friend', Clark Kent & Superman.
There is also the not very subtle revelation that her child is actual Clark's/Kal El's --
But it faulters repeatedly when we'd rather hope that there was a deeper scratch into this theme...
Plus: There's this Article that Lois wrote: "Why the world doesn't need Superman" that she's won a Pulitzer Prize for... But we never get to see even a hint of what her argument was...???
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If the Superman Suit is Invulnerable, as is demonstrated repeatedly...
Then why does it allow Lex to stab Superman with a Kryptonite Knife...???
OK -- The suit is susceptible to the effects of Kryptonite too...
OK -- If that's so...
Then when Superman is fatally weakened at the end, lifting the Crystal Continent into space,
Why isn't the suit equally damaged, and torn off him during reentry...???
HUH...!!!
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Are there any clever, memorable lines in this film...???
In the first film, you may recall; Lois screaming-- "You've got me-- Who's got you!?"

No such wit exists in this version.
The closest is a convoluted aphorism about seeing the world through each others eyes...???
It was too long.
And dull.
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Superdull.

Monday, July 03, 2006

Something New...

i have something new, that was posted in my Heretical Ideas & Inventions Section...
Is it possible to Win Consistently; At Roulette...???